Children with Disability should practice hand washing – UNICEF

Avakpedome (V/R), The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has asked special needs teachers to encourage Children with Disability (CWD) to practice effective hand washing.

Ms Offeibea Baddoo, Communications Officer, UNICEF-Ghana, said inclusive education meant children with disabilities must be able to use all facilities in the school environment and urged teachers to help them locate and use ‘tippy taps’ to wash their hands with soap.

She said this when a UNICEF team toured some public schools in the Volta Region to ascertain the effectiveness of practicing hand washing in schools.

She described hand washing with soap as a simple behaviour that had proven to be an effective mechanism in averting diarrhoea and other infectious diseases among children, for which reason CWDs must not be left out.

Mr Victor Bobison, Head of Special Needs, Avakpedome D/A School, said since the construction of ‘tippy tap’ in the school, children with special needs hardly report of illness and were regular in school.

UNICEF says millions of children die globally every year from preventable diseases such as diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections; and that hand washing with soap was the most cost-effective way of reducing the global infectious disease burden.

It says in addition to the direct health consequences of these diseases, such as delays in physical development and cognitive abilities, there were other indirect negative impacts for children, such as diarrheal diseases leading to higher rates of absenteeism and lower educational attainment, with the latter disproportionately affecting young girls.